


Conversation in Blue

by FroldGapp



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Protective Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 04:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12161532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FroldGapp/pseuds/FroldGapp
Summary: Lance talks to Shiro about his 'Keith problem'.





	Conversation in Blue

Lance knocked and waited for a response, nervously kicking his heels together. A small hum was beginning to build in the back of his throat when Shiro’s voice bid him to come in. He slipped through the door and closed it quietly behind him.

Shiro’s room was lit by a single lamp on his desk. It cast a warm glow across the small quarters. In fact, the whole room was warm; warmer than Lance’s. He wondered if it was because of Shiro’s arm. All that cold, hard metal. The man himself was sat on the edge of his bed, tablet resting in his lap. The bluish glow lit his face from below.

‘Lance?’

Lance realised belatedly that Shiro had already addressed him.

‘Uh, yeah.’ He said. He fiddled with the zipper on his jacket. ‘Hey, Shiro.’

‘Hey, Lance…?’

Lance coughed. ‘Hey,’ he drew the word out like taffy. ‘Shiro.’

The older paladin raised an elegant eyebrow. Lance raised an answering eyebrow.

‘Can I help you?’ Shiro dropped the words into the room like coins into a slot machine.

The awkwardness of the entire situation and his self-imposed mission rushed in on him at once. He considered bolting, but Shiro was already making space for him on the bed.

He crept forward, his legs feeling unwieldy and too long as he gingerly sat next to the black paladin. He cleared his throat. ‘I wanted to ask you something. If you’re, uh, if you’re not too busy.’

Shiro smiled and it went the whole way up to his eyes. He placed his tablet to one side. ‘No, no, of course not. What’s bothering you?’

Lance took a deep breath and slapped both palms down on his knees. ‘Well,’ he began, but the words stuck in his throat. He tried again. Another deep breath. ‘See… Eh…’

Shiro tilted an encouraging smile in his direction, forehead scrunched and maybe a little impatient. ‘Lance.’

‘Does Keith hate me?’ The words exploded out of him in one sputtering, spitting torrent.

Shiro’s smile dropped. He issued a tired sigh and scratched at the bridge of his nose.

Fuck. Lance knew it was a mistake coming here. Those two were so close. Great, now Shiro would know about his ‘Keith situation’. If didn’t already. Because Keith was so damn obvious. He was about to stand to leave when Shiro spoke.

‘Why do you think he hates you, Lance?’

Lance honestly laughed at that. _What._ ‘Shiro…’

The black paladin said nothing. His face was an open cliff face.

Lance began counting off on his fingers. ‘He snaps at me, he avoids me, he always goes up for the same missions as me, and he just… he…’ Lance made an urgent, helpless noise. ‘He just _does._ ’ Shiro said nothing. ‘Doesn’t he?’

A long, loaded silence hung between them. When Shiro spoke he sounded worn, but not bothered, which was a pleasant relief. The lines of his body as he brought his hands together between his knees and drew back his shoulders made Lance feel as though perhaps he hadn’t been so stupid to come here.

‘What kind of things does he snap at?’ Shiro asked. He was all teacher now, all mentor. The Shiro Lance remembered from Garrison, though they’d never met.

Lance pouted and thought of an example. ‘Well, like, when I try to kid around with him: “Keith rigged the AI!” or like, “Keith totally broke the goo hose!” He just freaks out and storms off. I’m talking about a situation here where the goo hose wasn’t even broken!’

Shiro nodded knowingly. He drummed the fingers of his left hand on his knee, thinking. Not thinking. _Considering._  There was something he wanted to say to Lance, but was thinking twice about. The blue paladin swallowed noisily.

‘Lance, the things you joke with Keith about: to you or I, or Hunk or Pidge, they’re…’ He waved his hand around to find the correct word. ‘Light. They’re- We know that’s not us. If you accuse Hunk of stealing food rations-’

‘He does steal food rations.’

Shiro rolled his eyes. ‘If you accuse Hunk of cheating the AI, we all know that Hunk wouldn’t do that. And more importantly,  _Hunk_  knows we know he wouldn’t do that.’

‘Well… yeah,’ Lance agreed.

‘But Keith, he-’ There was that deep frown – consideration: to tell Lance or not to tell Lance. He settled on sharing with a sigh. ‘A lot of people have said a lot of untrue things about Keith, and he’s suffered because of it. It’s _hurt_  him, Lance.’

Lance’s eyes were plates. His shoulders hunched. It felt like he was getting a ‘talking to’, but he wasn’t. It was Shiro. No, this was different. He wasn’t being chastised, he was being guided. This was a child lifting a rock and seeing the soil beneath team with ugly creatures. He saw Keith at the garrison dolefully cleaning the halls after dinner because of some fight or other. He saw the empty frame where Keith’s picture used to hang after he washed out. His face began to burn with shame.

‘Keith… He’s -’ Now Shiro was really at a loss for words. He scratched at the thick column of this throat. ‘He’s very – and please don’t laugh at this old-fashioned word because I’m half asleep here, but – he’s very _honourable.’_

Lance did laugh and Shiro clipped him across the back of the head playfully, which made Lance’s heart blossom more than he was comfortable with as an apparent soldier and defender of the known universe.

‘Honestly Lance?’ Shiro began. ‘I don’t think Keith hates anyone.’

Lance balked.

‘I don’t think he’s capable of it. In Keith’s world people do things that are right.’ Shiro opened his hands, one after the other as he spoke. ‘And things that are wrong. There are no “good people” and “bad people” if you get what I’m saying?’

‘So, I’m a jerk-off doing things that are wrong?’ Lance didn’t mean that to sound half as defensive as it did.

Shiro smiled warmly and shook his head. ‘No, Lance. You’re a really, _really_  great friend and – here’s another horrible word – kind of sweet.’

Lance laughed. Another clip around the ear.

‘But when you say those things to Keith he takes them very seriously. Because they have been serious for him in the past. Very serious. You remind him that he might not be doing things right, when ‘doing things right’ forms the centre of his universe. You’ve seen him. You _know_  him, Lance.’ Shiro frowned. ‘It’s all he tries to do.’

Lance hummed his agreement, a lump forming in the back of his throat. ‘He’s scared of me,’ Lance whispered. ‘That’s why he avoids me. Oh my God.’

Shiro nodded knowingly. ‘He’s scared of what you remind him of. What can go wrong for him; be taken away from him.’ Something lit behind Shiro’s eyes. ‘And, hey: the missions. You’re talking about the Greefyr System, and the like, yes? You and Keith both volunteered for those missions. I chose Keith.’

‘Right, but… I mean, I trust you. You don’t have to…’ He offered a shaky grin to Shiro who returned a rueful shadow of a smile.

‘Were there any missions you were chosen for Keith wasn’t?’

‘Well sure.’ He shrugged. ‘Like that nasty ice planet with all the hot icicle babes.’

‘The killer icicle babes?’

Finger guns. ‘The very ones. But come on: Blue was built for an ice planet. She was the best lion for the job. It’s not personal.’

Shiro looked at Lance and waited.

‘Ah.’ Lance snorted an uncomfortable little acknowledgement. ‘Well… Okay. I mean…Okay, okay. _Maybe_  I took _some_  decisions personally.’ 

Shiro quirked a smile: ‘It’s natural. I’m glad you care enough to check in, Lance. It’s really brave of you. I know me and Keith have history, but we’re all a team now.’

He stood, bashfully batting at the pockets of his jacket. ‘Thanks Shiro.’

‘But Lance?’

‘Huh?’

‘Thanks for telling me about the selection thing. I’ll keep that in mind for future missions.’ Shiro stood and walked him to the door. ‘I make mistakes too. That’s what makes you such a great part of the team. You’re not afraid to say.’

Lance beamed. He couldn’t help himself.

‘I know you only want what’s fair. Sort of like a certain mullet-head we both know.’

Lance laughed and ducked under Shiro’s arm into the bright light of the corridor. ‘Good night, Shiro.’ 

‘Good night, Lance. Dream of ice babes.’

**Author's Note:**

> I have *no* idea where this came from! Poor Lancey Lance!
> 
> Get at me at https://froldgapp.tumblr.com


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